Rus­sia plans to build at least six new nu­clear power units in In­dia

MOSCOW: In­dia and Rus­sia signed 16 agree­ments on de­fence, nu­clear en­ergy and other key ar­eas dur­ing Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi’s visit to Moscow, with the two sides an­nounc­ing that Rus­sia plans to build at least six new nu­clear power units in In­dia, in ad­di­tion to ink­ing key deals like the pro­duc­tion of Brah­Mos mis­siles and the at­tack chop­per Kamov-226 in In­dia.

Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi, on Day 2 of his visit to Moscow, con­veyed to Rus­sian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin that their sum­mit talks would give a fresh im­pe­tus to the bi­lat­eral re­la­tions be­tween In­dia and Rus­sia, re­fer­ring to Moscow as New Delhi’s “strong and re­li­able” friend.

As part of the an­nual In­dia-Rus­sia sum­mit, Modi and Putin held a one-on-one meet­ing be­fore they were joined by their re­spec­tive del­e­ga­tions. The two sides con­tin­ued their de­lib­er­a­tions over lunch at the Krem­lin be­fore they signed the agree­ments.

“In­dia and Rus­sia have a long history of cul­tural re­la­tions. And now we have a strong and re­li­able friend on the po­lit­i­cal and inter na­tional arena — Rus­sia. Rus­sia has al­ways been with us in hard times. We have a strate­gic part­ner­ship, a true strate­gic part­ner­ship,” Modi said at the sum­mit.

Modi in­vited Rus­sian CEOs to in­vest in In­dian in­fra­struc­ture and aero­space sec­tors, among oth­ers, stat­ing that his gov­ern­ment had cre­ated a favourable en­vi­ron­ment to boost eco­nomic growth.